A. Sayward Lamb

Beyond the sunset, O blissful morning,
When with our Savior heav’n is begun;
Earth’s toiling ended, O glorious dawning -
Beyond the sunset when day is done.

Beyond the sunset no clouds will gather,
No storms will threaten, no fears annoy;
O day of gladness, O day unending -
Beyond the sunset, eternal joy!

Beyond the sunset a hand will guide me
To God the Father, whom I adore;
His glorious presence, His words of welcome,
Will be my portion on that fair shore.

Beyond the sunset, O glad reunion
With our dear loved ones who’ve gone before;
In that fair homeland we’ll know no parting -
Beyond the sunset forevermore!

Family and friends, including all of us here at Skinny Moose Media, Maine Hunting Today, Maine Fishing Today and U.S. Hunting Today, are mourning the passing of a great husband, father and friend. Sayward passed away on Thursday, May 29, 2008.

An unbelievably talented man, Sayward accomplished many things in his life but none compare to the impact he left on anyone and everyone who met him. His addictive joy for life and everything around him was what made him the great man he was.

Born in Rangeley, Maine, Sayward moved to West Paris at a very young age and grew up in that community attending local schools. He hunted and fished for over sixty-five years and celebrated that occasion last year by compiling his many stories in a book called, “Deer Tails and Other Tales”.

After retirement, Sayward and his wife Cynthia of 60 years, spent their summers at their cottage on North Pond in Woodstock, Maine and wintering at their home in Plant City, Florida, where he and life-long friend, Milt Inman, would go chasing alligators and generally getting into mischief.

Some of his God-given talents included tying his own flies for fishing, constructing calls for his love of turkey hunting, woodworking, building furniture, crafting wooden boats, my favorite being his cedar strip canoes and paddles. Sayward took up the fine art of carving later in life, creating some finely detailed fish and birds. He won several awards both in Maine and Florida carving shows.

Aside from his genuine warmth and love, I will always miss Sayward’s stories. I have laughed so many times as I sat and listened to story after story and marveled how one man could experience so many things in the ways that he did.

Sayward loved his community and all the people who were part of it. He gave so much for others to enjoy.

You will be missed my dear friend!

Tom Remington and all the staff at Skinny Moose Media

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

The Complete Idiots Guide To……Or For An Idiot?

Meaning no disrespect to the publisher and author of “The Complete Idiots Guide to Growing Your Business With Google”, I had to share something I read the other night. This is something that bloggers and those who comment on blogs should find amusing……well, that’s my thought about it anyway.

My wife bought me this book the other day because she knows that I have online businesses and work at them diligently. Granted she doesn’t really understand much of what I do but she is of course a caring and thoughtful person.

Mostly out of politeness I began reading the book and soon came to realize that I could have written the book – meaning it was a bit below my learning curve. That isn’t to say that for the right person, at the right moment in their online business development, would get tons of information out of this book.

It was written by Dave Taylor in 2005 (a long time ago by Internet standards) but as I said, still contains a lot of valuable information. I suppose you can find the book for sale most anywhere, including on line.

So, to my point. As I was reading along, I came to a section about blogging. Taylor is pointing out that website owners should consider administering a blog as a means of communicating with customers and presenting yourself as an “expert” in your field. Here’s what Taylor wrote, which may or may not have pertained to some or no degree in 2005.

…..weblogs are becoming another venue where you can find opportunities to answer questions and share your expertise. It’s a slightly different environment, because weblog etiquette suggests that you never want to say that the original author is wrong (even if they are). After all, it’s their weblog and you’re just adding your two cents.

……….The majority of weblog owners take their sites quite seriously, and will quickly delete any comments left that are rude, insulting, crassly commercial, or even just politely representing an opposing viewpoint. Some weblog authors will post their own comments in response to your addition, while others never add comments of their own, preferring their readers to continue the discussion.

In all of these cases, rather than a cocktail lounge, it’s best to think of visiting a weblog as being invited into someone’s home for a small gathering. You’re only allowed to stay while you remain a positive influence on the gathering. (emphasis is mine)

Now before some of you go getting your undies in a wad, let me say that I have been blogging for a good 3 maybe 4 years. I don’t ever recall any of this etiquette and there are times I wish readers actually followed it. Just the other night one reader called me a “window licker”. I haven’t any idea what a window licker is but it doesn’t sound very nice. Other than that the remainder of the comment was completely out in left field in reference to the subject of the post. Being that it was rude, crude, crass, idiotic and moronic, I deleted it.

About a month ago, I had a reader write that he was going to come a kill me because he likened me to an animal that I would hunt.

In all honesty, even though at times I have become upset and angry over the actions of readers, more specifically those who leave comments, I don’t do the things Taylor suggest is blog etiquette. As I have matured as a blogger, so to have the things that I do in administering my blog and I’m sure these things will morph as time goes along.

With that said, readers should know that I don’t censor, although I have been accused of doing so. I try to keep some in line away from the comment section. In other words I might send them an email asking them to change their ways. As some of you know or have figured out, sometimes the email addresses a commenter leaves isn’t valid. In that case I am left with no alternative than to address them in a public forum.

I will censor out cuss words and as I said delete comments that are clearly idiots doing what idiots do best. Just because you disagree with me, isn’t reason for me to delete you and send you away.

I don’t care to babysit the comment section, although I do scan through them to make sure things are remaining at least on some level of sane discourse.

Much of what I write is to encourage discussion by readers in hopes of further enlightenment. That doesn’t always happen. As long as things can be controlled, I will leave my blogs as they are in hopes that the majority of readers enjoy reading and participating in the discussions.

As my mother said to me and my brothers growing up, “Don’t make me come in there with a stick!”

Tom Remington

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Maine Free Family Fishing Festival

The Upper Andro Anglers Alliance in co-operation with Trout Unlimited will host a free family fishing festival on Saturday, May 31. The festival will be held at the Grand Summit Hotel Pond at Sunday River Ski Resort in Newry, from 9 am to 2 pm, rain or shine. Free casting workshops and fly-tying instruction will be available throughout the day.

Members of the Mollyockett Chapter of Trout Unlimited will teach the workshops. Instruction will follow the curriculum developed by Trout Unlimited’s “First Cast” program for Kids. Instruction will include both spin casting and fly casting for older youth and parents. Maine’s Hooked on Fishing-Not on Drugs Program will supply complimentary rods and reels for use at the festival.

Families can practice newly learned casting skills in the Grand Summit Pond and are welcome to take home their catch. The pond will be stocked with trout courtesy of the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. The Upper Andro Anglers Alliance will provide each young angler with a mini-tackle box complete with bobber, sinkers and hook.

Kids can learn how to tie flies with materials provided by TU and fibers from Sunday River Alpacas. Every child will be able to take home a hand-tied fly.

Exhibitors include the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife with a mobile unit information booth, the Hooked on Fishing-Not on Drugs Program; Mainefishingtoday.com; and The Maine Conservation School of Bryant Pond, a camp facility for juniors and adults offering programs in Maine’s traditional outdoor activities.

Families are welcome to bring a pack lunch. An outdoor barbecue and cold drinks will be available at the festival. All parents and kids registering for the event will be eligible for prizes including outdoor and fishing equipment from sponsors, local outfitters and businesses.

The weekend of May 31 and June 1 is a free fishing weekend in Maine. Resident and Non-resident freshwater fishing licenses are waived each day. June 1 is the first day of National Fishing & Boating Week, a program of the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. RBFF is a non-profit organization whose mission is to increase participation in recreational angling and boating and thereby increase public awareness and appreciation of the need for protecting, conserving and restoring the nation’s aquatic and natural resources.

The Bethel Family Fishing Festival is one many nationwide events that provide families with an opportunity to have fun on the water. For those families wishing to stay overnight and fish or canoe the Androscoggin River on Sunday, special family packages are available for the weekend at local lodging establishments.

For information on the Family Fishing Festival, contact the Upper Andro Anglers Alliance at 1-877-275-3363 or on line at www.upperandro.com.

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Alberta, Canada Passes Hunting, Fishing, Trapping Heritage Act

What was once a right by regulation now becomes a right by legislation. Check it out.

It’s important to note that hunters, anglers and trappers have made important contributions to the understanding, conservation, restoration and management of provincial fish and wildlife resources. By enacting this legislation, Albertans express to future generations the values contained in the best traditions of hunting, fishing and trapping.
The intent of the legislation is to establish that Albertans have a right to hunt, fish and trap in accordance with various laws…

Tom Remington

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Thousands Of U.S. Citizens Asked To Give Up Properties To Save Endangered Species

*Spoof*

San Francisco – February 13, 2012 by Unassociated Press – As a continuation of the move by environmentalists and preservationists, a federal judge in this California city has ruled that thousands of Americans must abandon their homes, cease growing crops, vacate their properties and turn control of it over to the federal government within 30 days.

Judge Rhule F. Bench eagerly concluded that according to the wording of the Endangered Species Act, in conjunction with the recently passed Polar Bear Seas Protection Act and a decision by the U.S. Department of Interior back in 2008 to list the polar bear as threatened because of global warming, the government has to act to save several endangered, threatened or perceived threatened species.

In Alaska, natives in the VanKaren Cape community were issued legal documents and told they must abandon their village within 30 days to provide more habitat that might be needed for a protected walrus population. Even though arctic sea ice has continued to grow larger than ever recorded in history, during the cyclical climate period of the late 1900s and early 2000s, the walrus changed its movements and habits and now more of the giant mammals have taken up residence in this area. The Endangered Species Act demands that any activities that might affect a threatened species must be dealt with.

SEC. 7. ø16 U.S.C. 1536¿ (a) FEDERAL AGENCY ACTIONS AND CONSULTATIONS.—(1) The Secretary shall review other programs administered by him and utilize such programs in furtherance of the purposes of this Act. All other Federal agencies shall, in consultation with and with the assistance of the Secretary, utilize their authorities in furtherance of the purposes of this Act by carrying out programs for the conservation of endangered species and threatened species listed pursuant to section 4 of this Act.

In 2008 when then U.S. Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne decided to list the polar bear as threatened, scientists had estimated a bear population of between 20,000 and 25,000. The most recent polar bear count that took place in 2011 placed the number at just over 40,000 but environmentalists have been successful in winning lawsuits that claim that they estimate a sustainable population of polar bears must be at least 50,000 worldwide.

Secretary of the newly formed Department of Wildlife Protection, Lovey O. Wolf, former head of the Center for Animal Rights and Biological Diversity, says this move is only the beginning of what he hopes will be a continued effort to protect our valuable natural resources at any cost.

In the Lower 48, the list of states required to set aside land for animal protection continues to grow. A three-year study is nearly complete that has mapped out critical habitat for as many as 600 threatened or endangered species. The larger species include the gray wolf, Canada lynx, bobcat and moose. Our fisheries are not exempt. All waters having populations of brook trout or have known to have had populations have been closed to all fishing and water activities. In many cases water sources for farms and private homes have been stopped.

Immediately after the 2008 presidential election, Congress amended and passed the Clean Water Restoration Act which essentially gives the federal government complete control over all waters inland and offshore. Inland waters also include, swamps, bogs, wet areas and any areas that could hold water, including during spring runoffs and floods.

In 2010 a group of 11 environmental and animal rights groups successfully sued the federal government to force them to list over 425 million square miles of land as critical habitat for threatened species. In many cases these threatened species don’t currently inhabit these areas but U.S. Fish and Wildlife Preservation Service scientists, along with scientists from the Department of Wildlife Protection deemed that certain areas would make ideal habitat for some species if those species were allowed to expand and grow.

Several million of those acres involved private property but owners of that property have no legal recourse. Acting behind closed doors during a late-night bartering session of Congress, politicians passed an amendment to the Endangered Species Act that gave government the power to cease private land if it deemed in the best interest of protecting and saving our natural resources. This amendment was kept under raps for a long time and very few people even know about it.

Over 375,000 property owners scattered from Washington and Oregon, over including Idaho, Montana, Wyoming on into Wisconsin and Michigan will be left homeless in 30 days because of providing protection for the gray wolf and Canada lynx. Portions of Minnesota’s northwest will be turned into wilderness lands in hopes that the moose will return and flourish.

Millions of Americans are directly and indirectly affected by this ruling. Some ranches, industries, power plants, businesses and private homes can no longer operate or exist because of either threats to animals or they pose a danger to the waters and wetlands that support certain aquatic life.

And this is only the beginning promised Sec. Lovey O. Wolf. He said that once mapping was complete, he estimated all 50 states would be required to give over control of at least some of its lands to the government.

There are very few organizations left today to fight this action. Most groups were shut down after Congress passed laws prohibiting activities opposed to governmental actions. These included the NRA, U.S. Sportsman’s Alliance, Safari Club International, to name a few. All gun rights groups were disbanded once laws were passed outlawing guns in this country. All that is left now are a few rogue and small groups working underground in hopes to regenerate interest in the way things used to be.

Many former hunters, trappers and fishermen have migrated to Alaska seeing that state as the only hope for their future. Alaska has been trying for several years now to secede from the United States and become an independent country. As I write, U.S. Naval ships sit off the coast of Alaska sending a clear message that the U.S. Government will not tolerate a move by Alaska to separate itself from the U.S.

Tom Remington

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Looks Like Maine Will Head Back To Court Over Canada Lynx

This really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that many of the same groups that sued the state of Maine last year over inadvertent trapping of Canada lynx, are once again threatening a lawsuit if the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife doesn’t immediately take actions to stop the trapping of the lynx.

The Wildlife Alliance of Maine and the Animal Welfare Institute will join together to force the state to take action.

“Lynx are still being taken illegally in traps set for other animals, in traps smaller [than] those covered by the consent decree, and in areas not covered by the consent decree,” wrote Judith Brawer, an attorney for the two organizations.

“If DIFW refuses to take immediate action to protect lynx from traps, more lynx will be illegally taken, further violating the ESA, and thus we will be forced to pursue legal action before the start of the upcoming trapping season.”

Last year the Animal Protection Institute, which is thought to have released deadly cobra snakes in North Carolina to scare the public, sued the state to protect the lynx and won. After that ruling by the court last October, in a previous article I said this:

We know that these groups’ long range intentions are to rid the U.S. of hunting, fishing and trapping. Any weakness in the armor of state’s fish and game provides opportunity for lawsuits. MDIFW should have been more vigilant to protect the interests of the trappers in this case. They should never have taken the risk and assumed anything. Let’s hope they take a lesson from this act.

Were we ignorant enough to think these groups would stop at that one court’s decision? Some day sportsmen and staff of MDIFW will realize there is never an end, especially when weakness on the part of the state and the sportsmen are shown.

Tom Remington

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

The Next Domino To Fall? Walrus

Empowered by the weakness of the Bush administration in its handling of the polar bear and the Endangered Species Act, the same preservationist groups are now lining up to file suit to list the protection of the walrus because of the same melting ice they claim is caused by man-made global warming.

Michelle Malkin covers the story, the science and the politics of it all.

Tom Remington

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Children, Look The Other Way

I guess I just needed a laugh this morning. Thanks, Gary!

Tom Remington

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Random Thoughts And Questions…..For The Simple Minded

Here we go again. The last time I did this it seemed to be somewhat of a success and readers felt comfortable enough to leave a comment or two. Let’s go!

1). If crude oil is $130 a barrel today and economic “experts” claim that crude oil prices if they went to $150 a barrel would translate into $6-8 a gallon gas. If tomorrow crude dropped to $80 a barrel would that translate into $2 or less per gallon of gas?

2). Scientists (we don’t know which ones. It could be the “smart ones” who say global warming is real or the “dumb ones” who say science isn’t settled.) have discovered that there is climate change on Mars and Saturn. It also happens that the climate change is warming. It has been reported that one scientist has come up with a “controversial” scientific theory. His theory is that the warming of the planets might not be caused by man-made carbon dioxide emissions. He further theorizes that the warming might be directly related to solar activity. Why is that a “controversial” scientific theory?

3). Vice President Dan Quayle for all intent and purposes destroyed his political career, for whatever that was worth, because he couldn’t spell potatoe….er, uh, potato….hmmmm. Presidential hopeful Barack Obama said he’d been to 57 states campaigning; he was in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and said Sioux City, which is in Iowa; he referred to states near to Arkansas as “those states in the middle” and wasn’t aware that Kentucky was a boarder state of Illinois; he says he was born as a result of his parents getting “together” during the civil rights march in Selma, Alabama in 1965. Obama was born in 1961; he didn’t know what language was spoken in Afghanistan; he views countries like Iran, North Korea and Cuba as tiny, not posing any threat; he claims his uncle was with the Americans when they liberated Auschwitz – the Russians did that; and the most recent one was him claiming to see dead people in the audience during a Memorial Day speech. The media declares Obama the front runner and is sure to win in November. Does any of this matter? I guess things change.

4). A report out recently says that in April Americans drove 11 billion fewer miles than they did in March. Wow! Right? There are around 200,000,000 licensed drivers in the U.S.A. That means each licensed driver drove 55 miles less in April. That’s 1.8 miles less per day. How much is the price of gas getting us to change driving habits?

If the average vehicle were to get 20 miles per gallon (I don’t know the exact figure) then we saved 550,000 gallons of gas. Will that affect supply?

Tom Remington

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Video Version Of “Open Air”

I’m trying to work out a new audio/video version of Open Air With Tom Remington. Below is show I recorded this morning in order to begin working out the bugs. You will notice some audio skips here and there but most prominently and something I’m trying to figure out, is why the show stopped recording at precisely 30:59 when there was perhaps another 10 minutes of show. Have a look and listen and offer any feedback if you so desire.

Tom Remington

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

To Beat DEET Would Be Sweet!

Oh, my! For as long as man has taken to the woods, he has searched and searched for that magic “formula” that will keep biting insects away. For as long as man has searched for the secret there have been too-numerous-to-count “wives tales” formulas that “really do work”.

Take for example the blog I posted back in March about the use of Listerine mouth wash as an insect repellent. There have been over 30 comments from people who swear by it and those who will laugh in your face should you mention it.

The things that man has tried to beat off the swarming mosquitoes, black flies, chiggers, etc. could leave the most knowledgeable research scientist scratching his head. Some of those concocted formulas could kill or repel bigger things than tiny insects I’m sure but our quest remains undaunted. The search must go on.

One of the best known killers of insects, DDT – Dichloro-Diphenyl-Trichloroethane – is banned from use here in the U.S. Growing up in rural Maine in the 50s and 60s, my small home town budgeted money each year in order to hire a spray plane to criss-cross the village air space spraying DDT to kill unwanted bugs. I can honestly say it worked. It was a rare occasion to be playing baseball on the town’s Little League field and find a biting insect. Of course there were no songbirds and the like either but we didn’t get bitten.

Some of my growing up buddies and I laugh even today as we relive the days when the spray plane arrived so we could run outside, look up toward the clouds and wait to feel the mist of DDT fall gently on our faces. All that and there’s nothing wrong with me….wrong with me……wrong with me……wrong with me……wrong with me……

Sorry, I don’t know what happened.

Later came the development of DEET – N,N-Diethyl-meta-toluamide. DEET has been used for several years now as a repellent, whereas DDT was a kill-em-dead-on-contact pesticide. DEET has been relatively effective but isn’t recommended to be used on your skin, especially on kids.

DEET seemed to work best on mosquitoes to repel them but scientists really didn’t know why until recently a study seemed to indicate that it makes human scent “invisible” to those biting, vicious and hungry insects. With that to work on, could it be that someday someone will discover a different “chemical” that will even be more effective than DEET with no residual side affects – unlike what has happened to me?

Black Bear Blog reader “jes” sent me an email yesterday with a link to a National Public Radio story about just such a thing. You can read or listen to it for yourself but here’s an interesting tidbit from the story.

“And we’re finding lots of interesting things that look nothing like DEET that are much more potent, at least in the lab,”

Is it really that simple? Could it be that once someone seemingly discovers how DEET works, researchers have been able to “model” other things that will work as good or better? If so, why has it taken so long?

Kelli Miller Staci for WebMD has a bit more information on the work done by researchers at the University of Florida on insect repellents. The article goes a bit further than that of NPR in actually telling us what these “magic” chemicals are that work better than DEET.

Alan Katritzky of the University of Florida and colleagues used artificial neural networking software to predict how certain compounds called N-acylpiperidines would keep mosquitoes from feeding on human flesh. N-acylpiperidines are related to the active ingredient in pepper. The researchers identified 23 strong candidates, which they expected to be as effective as DEET.

So, there you have it. The newest information on how to repel insects. Simply douse yourself in pepper and head outdoors. Maybe not so fast. I think there might be more to this.

What I do find interesting though is that “under laboratory conditions” DEET is said to be able to repel mosquitoes for an average of 17.5 days and these new pepper-based ingredients will last up to 73 days. I can tell you from experience that DEET products in the “deep woods” will not repel mosquitoes for 17.5 days. Perhaps 17.5 minutes before the next dose needs administering.

And do we really want to repel those dastardly bugs anyway? Don’t those biting, unrelenting insects work as a repellent of their own? I had a short exchange of emails with the same reader, “jes” and he brought up an interesting question or two.

But I wonder if “the bugs” (especially in FL) don’t determine two important aspects: one how long or if we spend any time at all in the woods, hunting, etc. and how comfortable we are there. And two, how many woods will be left for wildlife if the bugs are gone…(it seems to slow development), in FL, at least!

Never fear “jes”! There just might be protection for those biting insects and their natural human repellent might just be able to do the trick. Many of you might recall last October I told you about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issuing the “Draft Mosquito Management Plan“.

I didn’t read anything in that plan that would call for the control of insect repellents, only pesticides but you can be sure that in this day of animal rights extremists and their undaunting affection with the courts, they will find a way to stop us humans from repelling biting insects.

The good news in all this seems to be that there may be hope on the horizon that we can get relief from biting insects with something that may not be as harmful as DEET. I would suppose that for those with allergies to pepper, you’ll need to hope for something else.

AAHHH CHEEEEEEWWWW!

Tom Remington

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Another Memorial Day Come And Gone

I fear getting myself into trouble for doing this but if I can only articulate the importance of how I feel without coming across as a big dope, I think most will understand and perhaps some might even agree.

Memorial Day is a national holiday in which we honor those who have died in service to America.

Formerly known as Decoration Day, it commemorates U.S. men and women who perished while in military service to their country. First enacted to honor Union soldiers of the American Civil War, it was expanded after World War I to include casualties of any war or military action.

Far too many Memorial Day events that I witnessed spent the majority of their time honoring the American soldier – the walking and breathing version. I believe we should honor our military 365 days a year and on top of all that, we have set aside another national day of celebration called Veterans Day in November.

My fear is this. As I get older I witness everyday less and less the teaching of history in our schools and our homes. Seldom, if ever, are our children taught about the founding of this country if only in passing. It seems that our society wants awfully much to stay away from dealing with any death when it comes to war. As gruesome as that is, it is a fact of our history and something that should never be forgotten.

We shouldn’t choose as part of our rapidly progressing society to disregard the ultimate sacrifices made by American men and women because we don’t like it or it makes us uncomfortable or that somehow if we shield this reality from our children it will magically disappear.

Without sounding callous, there is no bigger value that can be placed on our freedom than the sacrifices of human life to achieve that. If we remove the realities of that sacrifice from our “celebrations” of Memorial Day, so too will we soon forget our God-given right to freedom and the appreciation for it.

As U.S. citizens, whether we think war is necessary, we must honor and respect all those who serve this great country. There will be no life as we know it in America, should we forget or not be taught, that since the founding of this nation, men and women have died so that we can be free. All the money in the world cannot replace one life.

I want to see Memorial Day return to a national day in which we honor those who died and remember why.

Tom Remington

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Maine Hunter And Outdoor Writer Attacked By Coyote

Here’s one story you seldom hear about. Maine hunter and outdoor writer, Blaine Cardilli – a contributing writer for U.S. Hunting Today – was recently attacked by a coyote while turkey hunting with a friend.

Cardilli was turkey hunting with friend Orrin Parker. The two were fully camouflaged and set up for turkey hunting. Cardilli was using a slate call to call in gobblers for his friend when he was hit hard from the backside and toward his left by a full grown adult coyote. Cardilli thinks the coyote had been stalking his slate calls and picked up on his movements while calling.

The coyote hit hard and quick. Cardilli described it to me this way.

The coyote launched itself with enough force to knock me over, the impact of which even knocked out a filling! The coyote bit through 3 layers of my shirts and left puncture wounds and a few teeth scratchings on my arm but it got away.

Parker whirled around in response to the attack in time to witness the coyote making rapid retreat into the dense forest.

Cardilli says he learned a valuable lesson when calling turkeys and plans to keep a closer eye out for stalking coyotes.

There is one other tragedy with this story. I talked further with Blaine and discovered that he is undergoing rabies treatment, the cost of which is around $1,600 – $2,000. He has no insurance and can’t afford to continue the treatments which could be a big risk. If anyone is so inclined to help Blaine out, please email me tom@ushuntingtoday.com and I will put you in touch with Blaine.

Tom Remington

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Considering Putting Your Land In Conservation Easement? Read On

Placing land in a conservation easement seems to be growing in popularity, especially with a troubled economy and rising property taxes. Sometimes these easements can give a landowner tax relief. What else can it give you? The following comes to us from the National Center for Public Policy Research. If you or someone you knows is considering doing this, they should make sure they completely understand all the ramifications that will affect them in the near and the long term.

LANDOWNERS BEWARE -
THE GOVERNMENT’S FOUND A NEW WAY TO CONTROL YOUR LAND

Conservation Easements Not What They Used to Be, Says New Report

Washington, D.C. – Under the guise of making more land accessible for the public’s use and providing tax relief for land-rich but cash-poor landowners, the government has found a convenient way to restrict the use of private land – often without the original landowner’s knowledge. Enter The Nature Conservancy and other large land trust conglomerates that approach farmers or large landowners with what seems like a “win-win” for all involved. In return for donating their land for conservation purposes, the landowners are provided with federal and state tax breaks and agree never to convert, develop or use the land for any purpose other than farming or ranching.

A total of 37 million acres of land throughout the United States are currently under the control of land trusts.

However, according to a new report by the National Center for Public Policy Research titled, “Conservation Easements: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” all-too-often that acquired land, placed under “conservation easements,” goes from the land trust right into the governing hands of the largest landowner in the United States, the federal government. Dana Joel Gattuso, author of the report and senior fellow of the National Center, explains these “prearranged flips” provide a back door approach to acquiring land control that is good for the government and the original land trust, but bad for the unsuspecting landowner, who has been kept out of the loop.

How profitable is it for conglomerates like The Nature Conservancy to participate in flips? Gattuso cites their annual report, which states about a fifth of the land trust’s annual support and revenues come from the sales of easements to the government. “In one example, The Nature Conservancy bought an easement for $1.26 million, then directly sold it to the federal Bureau of Land Management for $1.4 million,” she says. The Nature Conservancy certainly isn’t alone, the Maine Coast Heritage Trust, one of that state’s largest land trusts, has sold more than 700 of its 850 easements to the state and federal government.

Besides being able to take control over more and more land, “Government agencies like the arrangements because they are able to restrict activity on private property absent public approval, unlike land purchases, zoning laws and other land conservation regulations, which can draw heated opposition – and great angst,” Gattuso says. According to a Department of Agriculture report on easements, “conservation easements provide opportunities for public agencies to influence resource use without incurring the political costs of regulation or the full financial costs of outright land acquisition.” It is troubling that “easements, absent reforms, could evolve into the prevailing method for government to shift lands unobtrusively from private to public control under a pretense of private stewardship,” she states.

This trend toward more government involvement in land trusts troubles Gattuso. While conservation easements “have become the rage in land conservation – rising in number from 740 in 1995 to 6,500 today – so has the role of government and government’s influence over land trusts.” Initially, the benefits of land trust involvement with easements created the possibility of an effective land stewardship program. “Yet land trusts, particularly the larger organizations, are changing their focus from independent and private approaches, to working in tandem with government agencies in an effort to assist government in controlling private lands,” she cautions.

Gattuso says the biggest reason landowners enter into a conservation agreement is to obtain relief from burdensome taxes – especially death taxes, which break up well-managed lands. Tax benefits are extended to everyone, from wealthy landowners who own hundreds of thousands of acres to struggling farmers who have inherited a hundred-acre farm. These easements, however, extend into perpetuity and can become a big concern when future generations inherit the affected land, the report says. Environmentalists presently view this as beneficial, but what is ecologically-beneficial one day, may not be the next. Legal and policy experts agree these binding agreements that extend into perpetuity “ultimately become antiquated and, therefore, useless or even harmful. The rule fails to recognize that conservation needs – as well as definitions of scenic, aesthetic and cultural – change over time, and that the easement may eventually lose any ecological benefit or even become a detriment. Modern views in ecology hold that the environment is in a constant change rather than in search of a stable end-state,” Gattuso reports.

Robert J. Smith, also a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research and a foremost authority on property rights, shares Gattuso’s concerns. “Short-term conservation easements were once considered a method to protect lands short of fee simple acquisition. But over time they have morphed into perpetual lock up of lands in a single use. This is not only disastrous from an environmental viewpoint, because nature is forever changing – but it is also the antithesis of a free market because they preclude all future choice,” he says.

Additional problems with tragic consequences arise when there are different interpretations of what a conservation easement allows. There is no shortage of landowners who offer their own disastrous story of their involvement with conservation easements. As an example, the Property Rights Foundation of America cites the case of a farmer who bought a 42-acre property in Chester County, Pennsylvania. Wanting to build a farmhouse to house three generations of his family, he didn’t expect to run into any problem with a conservation easement that had been placed on the land. The easement noted the land could be used only for farming or nature conservation, and for small buildings related to those uses. However, the French and Pickering Creeks Conservation Trust sued to stop the construction, claiming the farmhouse did not fall within the parameters of what was allowed to be built on the land. A judge with the Chester County Court of Common Pleas ruled in favor of the farmer and noted the construction of the farmhouse “does not offend the easement definition of a ’small building’ incidental to farming use.” Construction on the farmhouse continued and so did the legal stranglehold the Trust held against the family. The Trust appealed the judge’s decision all the way to the Pennsylvania State Supreme Court. Ultimately, the tragedy of how these conservation easements can be misunderstood is evidenced by the bulldozing of the family’s farmhouse, which destroyed the dreams of three generations of family farmers and 15 years of savings.

The paper, “Conservation Easements: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” by Dana Joel Gattuso is available online at http://www.nationalcenter.org/NPA569.html .

The National Center for Public Policy Research is a free-market communications and research foundation established in 1982 and located on Capitol Hill.

Tom Remington

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Tearing Down Pennsylvania’s Deer Population So It Can Be Rebuilt?

I read an article this morning in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review about an area of Pennsylvania, Raystown Lake Recreation Area, that has been working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reduce an overblown whitetail deer population of about 60-80 per square mile down to something considered normal – perhaps 15ish per square mile.

If you are at all familiar with Pennsylvania deer hunting, you know a controversy has been brewing there for some time over the fish and wildlife’s efforts to reduce deer herds statewide. This in turn, has angered some hunters who have complained that now there aren’t enough deer left to hunt. Others are pleased with the results so far saying the deer they are seeing are bigger and healthier.

As we have heard time and again during the debate over the deer management system being employed, too many deer has resulted in a basic deforestation of the land, much of this the very necessary food needed to sustain deer populations. Landowners have complained that too many deer are destroying their forests.

This evidently is the same problem taking place in the Raystown Lake Recreation Area, so with the assistance of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, they went to work to reduce the deer numbers. It now appears that after about 10 years of work, the deer density in the area is around 15 per square mile. Jeff Krause, a wildlife biologist with the Corps, says that even though there are fewer deer, hunters are still taking a lot of deer.

I don’t have a problem with this and it sounds as if the forest is regenerating and the remaining deer are quite healthy. What puzzles me though are comments made about what the future looks like after the reduction.

The management plan for Raystown calls for sustaining the deer population at current levels – about 15 per square mile. Pennsylvania Game Commissioner Russ Schleiden of Centre County, told Jeff Krause at a meeting recently that with the regenerated habitat, it would mean it can support more deer in the future.

“I think what you’re saying is that once we get the herd to where it needs to be, and the habitat starts to recover, the deer herd will rebound, too. That’s something your data shows, and it’s something commissioners have been saying all along,”

Does anybody else find this statement a bit confusing? I don’t have all the details obviously but if the 10-year effort was to reduce the deer population to 15 per square mile, a number that many wildlife biologists would consider reasonable, in order to regrow the forest and sustain a healthier deer population, why are they looking to rebuild it?

Schleiden says that the Corps’ data supports the theory that reducing the herd allows the forest to regrow, which in turn provides better habitat for the deer. Now that the population density is reduced to 15 per square mile, the Corp is saying they will work to maintain that level yet, Schleiden is indicating the Commission should let the deer numbers increase again.

Not knowing Schleiden’s position on the current Pennsylvania deer management program, I could assume that what he is saying is that the program will not work because reducing numbers allows the forest to regenerate which in turn allows the population to flourish which brings us back to the same problem the state faced prior to implementation of the deer management plan.

If that’s true, isn’t that a bit like the same theory that animal rights groups use against the use of hunting as a management tool, one that reduces deer populations? They say that killing off deer causes them to reproduce more and therefore hunting is counterproductive.

I just find Schleiden’s comments confusing and I don’t understand the real point he is trying to make. Perhaps he’s referring to a very general “rebound” of the deer population statewide, which in turn will provide more hunting opportunities for hunters.

Tom Remington

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!

Next Page »